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https://www.828ministries.com/articles/Theological-Cliff-Diving--by-Anthony-Wade-Faith_God-180403-797.html

April 3, 2018

Theological Cliff Diving - Divine Healing Edition

By Anthony Wade

Becky Dvorak is at it again...robbing God's sovereignty and sick-shaming the ill...

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But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned--every one--to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. -- Isaiah 53: 5-6 (ESV)

https://www.charismanews.com/opinion/70308-declaration-healing-is-for-today

The healing hucksters seem to be growing in numbers in these end times. We have seen the explosion of prosperity pimps over the past several decades but now those who sell mandatory healing from God seem to be catching up to them. Of course the new wave of falseness from places like Bethel likes to embrace multiple dominant heresies. The Bill Johnson, Kris Vallotton, Shawn Bolz cabal fully embrace and preach carnal prosperity as well as mandatory healing from God as two of their more egregious teachings (along with NAR dominionism and false signs and lying wonders). So as the healing hucksters hone their craft it is important that we call them out on it every time and mark them for the division they cause as the Bible instructs us to do. Such is the case of Becky Dvorak who has entitled herself a "Prophetic Healing Evangelist." If you are wondering why you never heard of such an absurd title it is because she made it up. Either way, Becky has been making the rounds on Charisma News defending the notion that God is required to always heal us and thus if we are not healed we have no one to blame but ourselves. Let us reason together once more as we review the above linked article and hopefully clear up some common misconceptions and false teachings that come from this heresy.

"God created the human body, and it is a marvelous creation. It was created to be strong and healthy at all times. Then why does it so oftentimes get sick? From the time that Adam and Eve willing sinned against God, the World and everything within it fell. And it's at this time of the original sin that corruption came into the world and into the physical body as well. And because of the fall, God designed a plan of redemption that would purchase back all that had been corrupted and lost, including divine healing for us. Whether it be spiritual, mental or emotional, or physical healing--Jesus paid the price, once and for all. And nowhere in Scripture will we find that He removed from His blood covenant His healing power for us today. Nor will we find an amendment to what was done at the whipping post to heal all that will believe in it." -- Becky Dvorak

As with most healing hucksters, Becky Dvorak gets the origin correct. There was no sickness in the original creation. That came from the fall and she is right that sin, corruption and sickness came into creation as a result of the fall. Finally, she is correct that God designed a plan for redemption but it was not for the physical bodies we now hold. It was a spiritual redemption so that we would not spend eternity separated from our Creator. We must remember that people like Becky Dvorak and the NAR dominionists like her, worship this world and this life. Here they are the one in control of the religious purse strings. Here they are the Prophetic Healing Evangelists. So they will always put up a fight for this life, this world, and thus, this body. Notice however the logical disconnect as she tries to shoehorn in divine healing into the atonement. In order for this to be the case she recognizes that it must have been part of the original creation. Except it was not. There was no "divine healing" in the garden because it was unnecessary. There is no reason to provide healing for a creation that never gets sick. This is where her redeeming the non-spiritual reasoning falls apart. Also, what in the world would she then do with these Scriptures?

For we know that if the tent that is our earthly home is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For in this tent we groan, longing to put on our heavenly dwelling, if indeed by putting it on we may not be found naked. For while we are still in this tent, we groan, being burdened--not that we would be unclothed, but that we would be further clothed, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life. He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who has given us the Spirit as a guarantee. -- 2Corinthians 5: 1-5 (ESV)

Our earthly home refers to our physical body. We know it is being destroyed but we also know that we have an eternal body that awaits us. The indwelt Holy Spirit is a guarantee of this. If divine healing is part of the atonement then why would I ever need an eternal body? That is the absurdity of their claim. If God is required to always heal us -- why would any of us ever die? Bill Johnson believes in this nonsense and wears prescription eyeglasses. Kris Vallotton believes as well yet recently admitted to having cataract surgery. Becky tries to be cute here in asserting as fact the fiction she believes. The fact is that there is no "healing for today" found in the blood covenant. We do not need an amendment for something that is misunderstood scripturally, as we will soon see.

"But [in fact] He has borne our griefs, And He has carried our sorrows and pains; Yet we [ignorantly] assumed that He was stricken, Struck down by God and degraded and humiliated [by Him]. But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was crushed for our wickedness [our sin, our injustice, our wrongdoing]; The punishment [required] for our well-being fell on Him, And by His stripes (wounds) we are healed (Isa. 53:4-5, AMP)." -- Becky Dvorak, quoting Scripture

Beloved there are several decent translations of the Bible for us to use. None are perfect but some are simply never to be used and the Amplified Bible is one of them. The reason why is it takes all of the possible usages of words instead of translating what God was actually trying to say. So take all of the words in brackets and parenthesis above and realize none of them were actually in the text. It leaves a smorgasbord for open interpretation. Let us look at the key verses from the ESV, without all of conjecture of the Amplified:

But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned--every one--to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. -- Isaiah 53: 5-6 (ESV)

This is of course from the famous Messianic prophecy of Isaiah. Jesus Christ was pierced for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. Transgressions and iniquities have a common definition and that is sin. The purpose of the cross was because of our sin. Just as Isaiah provides two statements of the reason, he then provides two statements of the outcome. The punishment laid upon him (chastisement) is what brought us peace. Well what kind of peace? This is obviously speaking about peace with God beloved. This entire prophecy is explaining how the work of Christ on the cross mended the relationship between man and God that was lost in the garden. It is because of this that by His stripes -- we are healed. The healing spoken about here is not a physical healing in this lifetime but rather a spiritual healing that will last eternity. All like sheep we have gone astray from God. None are righteous. No one seeks after God. We all have turned our own way -- which is away from God. Yet the Lord has taken these iniquities and laid them upon the stricken Christ so that our relationship with God can be healed. Do not forget that this is also consistent with the blood sacrifice system set up in Israel. Jesus would be the final lamb needed -- the Lamb of God. When Israel participated in these rituals they were not for physical healing but for the forgiveness of their sins before God. Unfortunately, Dvorak jumps off the theological cliff at this point:

"To propose that supernatural healing is not for today is blasphemous against the blood of Jesus shed at the whipping post to purchase all healing for us. To suggest that God put sickness and disease upon your body for any reason whatsoever goes against the Word of God that declares "By His stripes we are healed". And to say that He put this illness upon your body for a good reason is a works mentality and you lack a true understanding of grace. To declare that God chose not to heal you or your loved one is to call God a liar. It not only declares war against all that Jesus did for us at the whipping post, but it implies that God and His Word are not to be trusted when He ensures us that "God is not a man, that He should lie." (See Num. 23:19a). And that "Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, and today, and forever" (See Heb. 13:8)." -- Becky Dvorak

This is a clever mixture of ignorance and strawmen. No one is saying that supernatural healing is not for today. The Bible says to go to the elders of the church to have them pray over you if sick. Why is that instruction even there if we could just snap out fingers and magically heal ourselves? God can always heal within His sovereignty beloved. What Becky Dvorak proposes is robbing God of that sovereignty by saying He must always heal. The ignorance however is for calling blasphemy on something that is fundamentally untrue. The whipping post did not purchase all healing for us physically. No scripture says that. Then we see another strawman argument in the notion that anyone is arguing that God places the sickness upon us. It is interesting to note though that Becky must not believe in the permissive will of God. According to her, someone dying of cancer just did not exercise enough faith to redeem what God already purchased. Yet God is sovereign over all so the passing away of that person was part of His permissive will! So the mean spirited and capricious god Becky Dvorak is trying to sell you is up in heaven with your purchased healing in his hand but he only allows that healing if we exercise some acceptable modicum of faith. Then if we do not, he allows us to die from the sickness he already sent his son to die for? That makes absolutely no sense and creates this fickle and heartless god that has no real sovereignty over anything unless we reach some standard or bar first.

The next strawman is to suggest that god places the illness upon us for a good reason. I assume what she is referring to is the notion that sometimes God might allow an illness for a particular reason but her distortion is critical to understand. Sickness and disease came into the world because of sin and the fall. So God is not actively selecting cancer for this person and that. He may however allow a disease and more often than not He does. That is His permissive will. Because Becky and the healing hucksters all value this life they cannot see the futility of their own positions. It is so sad to watch. God and His Word are always to be trusted. It is people who use the Word for their own ends instead of His that cannot be trusted. It isn't God that is lying Becky.

"Why then does your healing take time to manifest? Or why does it not manifest at all? According to Jesus' words, "Your faith makes you whole" (see Luke 17:19). Faith in what? Faith in the redemptive blood of Jesus to heal. "Daughter, your faith has made you well. Go in peace, and be healed of your affliction" (Mark 5:34). "Then He said to him, 'Rise, go your way. Your faith has made you well'" (Luke 17:19)." -- Becky Dvorak

I was prepared to go into depth here for the two scripture references because they of course have nothing to do with the redemptive blood of Jesus to heal, which is the selling point she is making here. The Luke verse comes from the ten lepers who were healed. The ironic thing here is only one returns to give praise and that is who Jesus says your faith has made you well. We actually do not know why the other nine were healed then do we? The text never bears that out. The Mark verse is from the woman with the issue of blood who was indeed healed because she believed if she could just touch the hem of His garment she would be. Listen beloved, faith is vitally important in healing but our faith is not stronger than His sovereignty. The larger point here is that Beck Dvorak is making the point that the woman with the issue of blood and the tenth leper who came back to give praise were both healed because of their faith in the redemptive blood of Jesus to heal. Except Jesus had not undertaken that work yet. Oops. At the time of these two stories He had not gone to the cross yet. So if it was not that then what was their faith in that allowed them to be healed? How about Jesus Christ? How about His claim to being the Son of God? Sure belief in His healing abilities is big but useless without having faith in whose authority He was working under! This was the faith of the Roman Centurion! He understood that Jesus had the authority -- say the word and I know she will be healed. Either way, the cross still lay ahead so it had nothing to do with the redemptive blood of Jesus to heal.

"Instead of blaming God for not completing His promise to heal, it's time to take a good hard look in the mirror of God's Word and speak the truth so that you and others can be free from the bondage of sickness and disease. Be honest with yourself and with others: Your faith is not, or was not, strong enough to trust God for your healing. And then move forward, without condemnation, and develop your faith to believe for your healing. Remember, it is your faith that heals and makes you whole." -- Becky Dvorak

Wow. Wasn't she just complaining about a works mentality? This is entirely works! That God cannot or will not heal you unless you achieve some mythical faith benchmark is staggeringly arrogant and creates a cruel god at best. Beloved, I want you to understand how vile this is. What Becky Dvorak and the healing hucksters are selling is a god that could heal you if he wanted to but he is choosing not to because he doesn't approve of your level of faith. This is simply disgusting and unbiblical. It is Jesus Christ that heals us and makes us whole. That is what our faith must be in with the understanding that He is sovereign. He gets to decide, not us. Becky Dvorak is setting up Christians everywhere to blame God or themselves -- neither of which results in a good outcome. If we blame God then we walk away from the faith. If we blame ourselves who knows where that self-inflicted misery ends.

Beloved, God can heal you. He is God. The Bible gives us clear instruction for when we are ill. It also speaks about simple home remedies. Do not fall for the healing hucksters who want to sell you a capricious and miserable god who sits around all day deciding who lives and dies based upon some subjective sense of faith in his own healing abilities. We pray, we seek the elders of the church but in the end we trust in the sovereignty of God realizing that the enteral life He purchased for us on Calvary is worth so much more than the one that false teachers are dying to protect here.

Reverend Anthony Wade -April 3, 2018



Authors Bio:
Credentialed Minister of the Gospel for the Assemblies of God. Owner and founder of 828 ministries. Vice President for Goodwill Industries. Always remember that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him and are called according to His purpose.

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